CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Clarence Fincke

American football player (1874-1959)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ5126521 ↗
Source-derived summary

Clarence Mann Fincke (October 12, 1874 – June 19, 1959) was an All-American football player and a banker. He played football for Yale University from 1894 to 1896, mostly at quarterback and some at fullback, and was selected as the quarterback for the 1896 College Football All-America Team.

Playing career

Fincke attended The Hill School before enrolling at Yale University, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. At Yale, Fincke played on the football team from 1894 to 1896. Fincke was 5-feet, 11-inches tall and weighed 160 pounds. He was voted captain of the 1895 football team, and a Massachusetts newspaper that year called Fincke "the steadiest player" on Yale's team. His tackling in an 1895 game against the Carlisle Indian School helped prevent the Carlisle team from scoring on Yale.

Fincke also played third base for the baseball team. One newspaper reported that he was "a good fielder and thrower" but "weak at the bat."

Fincke was popular among the Yale student body. He was voted the handsomest man in his Yale class and the most popular.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Clarence Fincke” as american football player (1874-1959). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1874, 1959, 1894, 1896—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1874-10-12. The account is most persuasive where Clarence, Fincke and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american football player (1874-1959). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5126521. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1874, 1959, 1894 and 1896.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Clarence Fincke”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Clarence Fincke primary sources, Clarence Fincke archive and Clarence research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Clarence Fincke”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Clarence Fincke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.